President's Message - Jan 2005

January 2005

It's
been great to have a few clear nights at the beginning of
the month. I've enjoyed the flurry of emails and
photos on the RASC-Victoria web site
about Comet Machholz and I have to admit I've hauled out my
telescope a couple times to mark Machholz's track through
Taurus on its way to Perseus and beyond. Machholz is no
Hale-Bopp, but it good to see a comet that isn't named
Linear and the fact that this comet was discovered by a
fellow amateur (Don Machholz of Colfax, California who
discovered it last August) makes it all the more alluring.

Despite the excitement of seeing a naked eye comet (I can
even see it from my Saanich driveway), I must admit that my
eye is drawn to that bright yellow 'star' just below the
twins. Saturn looks fabulous right now; all the more so for
the daily discoveries being made at the ringed planet by the
Cassini spacecraft. I start off my day with a quick trip to
the
Cassini-Huygens website to see what's new. Each visit
never fails to astound: peering through the atmosphere of
Titan for the first tentative glimpses of the surface;
spectacular 3-d pictures of Iapetus and Phoebe; exquisitely
beautiful images of Saturn's rings * every day is a new and
wonderful surprise.

Its
January 14th that is marked on my calendar, though. That's
the day Huygens lands on Titan. Carried as part of the
Cassini spacecraft, this ESA probe was released on Christmas
Day for its historic encounter with Titan. No one knows what
Huygens will see as it parachutes to the surface. Will there
be towering cliffs of frozen methane and lakes of liquid
ethane (fortunately, Huygens is designed to float)?
Regardless, Huygens should see something * despite the thick
atmosphere the surface illumination on Titan is 1000 times
brighter than the full moon on Earth.

Huygens is scheduled to impact the surface of Titan at 4:30
a.m. on Friday, January 14th. I may have to set my clock
early that day * how often do you have a chance to be part
of history?

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is dedicated
to the promotion of astronomy and its related sciences; we espouse the
scientific method, and support dissemination of discoveries and
theories based on that well-tested method.